roulette

a gambling game played by rolling a small ball around a shallow bowl with an inner disk (roulette wheel) revolving in the opposite direction: the ball finally comes to rest in one of the red or black, numbered compartments into which this disk is divided, thus determining the winning bets

a small toothed wheel attached to a handle, for making rows of marks or dots, as in engraving, or incisions, as between postage stamps

a series of small, consecutive incisions made in the paper between the stamps in a sheet of stamps, to facilitate their separation

Origin of roulette

French from Old French roelette, diminutive of roele, small wheel from Late Latin rotella, diminutive from Classical Latin rota, wheel: see roll

transitive verb

-·let′ted, -·let′ting

to make marks, dots, or incisions in or on with a roulette

roulette

noun

A gambling game in which the players bet on which slot of a rotating disk a small ball will come to rest in.

a. A small toothed disk of tempered steel attached to a handle and used to make rows of dots, slits, or perforations, as in engraving or on a sheet of postage stamps.

b. Any of the short consecutive incisions made between individual stamps in a sheet for easy separation.

transitive verb

rou·lett·ed, rou·lett·ing, rou·lettes

To mark or divide with a roulette.

Origin of roulette

French from Old French rueletefeminine diminutive ofruelediminutive ofrouewheelfrom Latin rota ; see ret- in Indo-European roots.

roulette

Noun

(countable and uncountable, plural roulettes)

(uncountable) A game of chance, in which a small ball is made to move round rapidly on a circle divided off into numbered red and black spaces, the one on which it stops indicating the result of a variety of wagers permitted by the game.

(countable) A small toothed wheel used by engravers to roll over a plate in order to produce rows of dots.

(countable) A similar wheel used to roughen the surface of a plate, as in making alterations in a mezzotint.

(countable, geometry) The locus of a point on a plane curve that rolls without slipping along another fixed plane curve.

(stamp-collecting) any of the small incisions on a sheet of stamps, used as an alternative to perforations.